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MTG’s special Avatar expansion will not become widely available before the end of the week, yet after pre-releases this past weekend, one cheap green card experienced a surge in value.

Throughout the spoiler season, the earthbending cub drew a lot of attention. This two-power, two-toughness that costs one green and one colorless mana, Badgermole Cub features Earthbending 1 (arguably the best among the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The real boon in its design lies in an additional effect: Each time mana is generated by tapping a creature, add an additional green mana.

Initially, Badgermole Cub sold at around $27. Post-prerelease, however, the market price has shot up above $45 and one seller offering priced at sixty dollars. Why are we seeing premium pricing for this cute lil guy? Primarily due to the rapid resource generation it can produce.

As it hits play, this creature transforms a terrain card so it becomes a creature with earthbend. And with that second ability, if it stays in play, those lands produces twice the mana — along with any creatures you have that generate mana.

An ideal partner for maximum effect would be this one-mana elf, an inexpensive 1/1 which can be tapped for one green mana. However numerous creatures that make mana out there. Druid of the Cowl costs a bit more that’s a 1/3 costing two mana instead.

By playing lands, mana-producing creatures, plus the cub, it's simple to summon a very big high-cost threat on the board within a few turns. Momentum builds rapidly with continued aggression from there.

If you dip into an additional hue using this method, options such as these mana-fixing creatures are all great options that generate any color of mana. Another card, a useful enchantment creature enables playing another terrain each turn as well as transforms every land you control into every basic land type. You can also consider for example this six-mana enchantment, at a six-mana investment gives each permanent you control the capacity to tap and generate a mana of any type — including each creature under your control.

The cub could be too strong when it comes to ramping up your mana generation, however what’s the endgame finisher for a deck like this? One obvious and popular answer has been Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its stats are both equal to the number of lands you control, and it changes all of your nontoken creatures Forests as well as other subtypes. This means, every single creature in play can produce double green if used for mana.

Harmonious Grovestrider provides a high-cost, powerful body that thrives with lots of lands (like Ashaya, P/T are equal to your land total).

This Planeswalker works perfectly in this deck. One of her abilities allows all Forests produce extra green. (Combined with earthbend, that means all earthbend forests generate three green mana.) Her main ability functions like a proto-earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters on a land, which is great but it isn't redundant with the cub's ability. Her ultimate, though, makes each land you control unbreakable and allows you to draw out all the remaining forests from your library. If you can actually activate the ultimate, it’s pretty much you win.

This card is pretty much essential for all decks using green and Avatar focusing on Earthbending. By including red and green, you can use Bumi Unleashed. He has earthbend 4, and when he deals combat damage to an opponent, all land creatures become untapped for another attack. Although this card has emerged as a fan favorite Commander, this small creature is set to be among the top, possibly the sought-after card from this expansion.